Mykhailo Holynsky (January 2, 1890 - December 1, 1973) was born in Verbivtsi village, Halychyna (now Horodenkivskyi rayon, Ivano-Frankivska oblast). He graduated from the faculty of law at the University of Kamianets-Podilsky and as a person gifted with a unique voice started taking singing classes. Prof. Cieslaw Zaremba was his first tutor for two years in Lviv. After that Holynsky became a student of prof. Edoard Garbin of Milan, once a leading tenor of “La Scala” opera, who “polished Holynsky’s operatic studies.” In 1925, after four years of training, Holynsky made his debut in “Il Pagliacci,” in Lviv Opera, singing the part of Canio. With this performance he started a long period of tours and concerts in Europe that lasted till 1938. In 1927 he accepted an invitation to work at the Kharkiv State Opera and was premier tenor with the state opera houses in Berlin, Tiflis (now Tbilisi), Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lviv, Warsaw, and Moscow. He also performed with great success in concert tours at the Vienna’s concert hall “Konzerthaussal” and the Praha “Smetana Hall”.
In December 1838 Holynsky made his debut in Canada at the Eaton’s Auditorium, Toronto and then pursued his tour to Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Montreal. He concluded his tour to North America with appearances in several operas in Philadelphia and New York city.
Holynsky planned to return to Ukraine however with the start of WWII he remained in Canada and lived in Toronto and Edmonton. Holynsky performed in several languages including German, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovac. He also knew French and English. He passed away on December 1, 1973 in Edmonton.
Ivan Honchar was a prominent Ukrainian activist, sculptor, artist. He was born on January 27 1911 in Lyp'ianka village of Kirovohrad region (today the village is part of the Cherkasy region). He studied art, drawing and sculpture the Kyiv Art and Industrial Professional School and graduated as a sculptor-decorator. While in school, he was renting a room from Maksym Korostash, a musicologist and folklorist. There he met Klymentii Kvitka and Olena Pchilka.
Honchar created numerous sculptures and monuments in many cities and villages across Ukraine. In 1960s-80s he created art albums with photographs and descriptions of folk costumes from different regions of Ukraine, architecture, folk art. Honchar did ethnographic fieldwork, and in 1970-1993 he created 18 volumes of historical-ethnographic albums "Ukraina i ukraintsi" [Ukraine and Ukrainians] based on photographs of the beginning of the 20th century and historical and ethnographic research.
He passed away June 18, 1993. In September of that year, a museum named after Ivan Honchar was created in Kyiv. His private collection of folk art became a foundation for the new museum. In 1999, the museum was renamed the Ukrainian Centre of Folk Culture "Ivan Honchar Museum". In 2009, it became a national museum.